SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The sand berms are still standing in Mission Bay — solid as a rock — but the City of San Diego and homeowners are issuing a warning ahead of Wednesday's expected high tides, asking beachgoers to avoid walking over the berms.
"The City encourages residents and visitors to help preserve the integrity of protective berms by staying off the berms and avoiding dragging boats, kayaks, personal watercraft or other large equipment or materials across them. Such activities can create depressions or weak points in the berm, increasing the potential for breaches during future high-tide events and storm conditions," Ben Cartwright, a spokesperson for the City of San Diego said.
We have one more day of super high tides, and foot traffic over the berms compromises all the hard work crews have done to keep people's homes from flooding.
On Tuesday, the sand was dry, and flooded homes were starting to dry out, a noticeable difference to Monday's flooding in Mission Bay.
I talked to the owner of a home on the beach, who reached out after initial reporting on the sand berms that gave way on Monday.
"And they were keeping up with the water as they normally do and then ... but then the berm gave way and we were all totally flooded," Andrew Kaperonis said.
Kaperonis went on to say his home on the beach had never been flooded before, showing me significant flooding damage to his basement area.
The berms are now noticeably higher, and city crews were still out reinforcing them this morning. With even higher tides than reported on Monday.
"Staff continues to reinforce the berms daily, and we appreciate the public's support so that these berms can continue to serve as an important first line of defense against coastal flooding," Cartwright said.
Page 2 of the Parks and Rec budget shows a reduction of 6 staff members for the beach maintenance crew in Fiscal Year 2027, the same crew responsible for building the berms. Parks and Rec confirmed the team is significantly smaller this year, but did not say whether that was directly related to the flooding on Monday in Mission Bay.
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